Buckle Up

A "miscommunication" means that Deontay Burnett is not only not a Michigan commit right now, but won't end up in the class, period. The Wolverines won't go wanting for long, though. Jay Harbaugh's tweet indicates a commitment is imminent, and I'm hearing the same thing.

Since I may have just spent a good part of my afternoon writing up a commitment post, I'm holding off on Signing Day stuff until tomorrow, when I'll write up a primer for what should be an eventful day.

Michigan has already cemented themselves in the game, they’re right there I think with North Carolina at the top right now in the top two. Florida beat out Georgia, an instate school for the final visit this weekend, so Florida I think is the third team.

As the weekend wore on, however, Florida picked up a lot of expert picks—I'd expect him to end up with the Gators.

*Not tongue-in-cheek—Williamson isn't the prospect referenced in the previous section.

[Hit THE JUMP for the rest of the roundup.]

Maybes and Happy Trails

Depending on how the numbers shake out, Michigan could have a very good chance of landing four-star WR Van Jefferson, an Ole Miss commit who visited last weekend. Jefferson, whose father Shawn played for the Lions in 2003 and coached their WRs from 2005-2012, spent much of his youth in Michigan and said after the visit that Ann Arbor felt like home, per Sam Webb ($):

“It was great seeing all my old friends… seeing the University again… man I was just glad to be back home,” he said happily. “Probably what stuck out to me the most was just hanging out with the guys. Hanging with Moe Ways and Alex Malzone. Moe Ways was (my host), but Alex was pretty much with me that last day. I knew Alex Malzone from my old high school at Orchard Lake, so me and him were close friends. So probably hanging out with them and seeing all of campus (stood out the most). Man it was just crazy!”

Jefferson plans to announce his decision on Wednesday.

Three-star FL CB Jarius Adams, a Rutgers commit, told Scout's Brian Dohn that he may decide tomorrow after visiting Michigan last weekend ($). The word from insiders is he's likely to stick with Rutgers.

Three-star TE Matt Snyder will stick with his commitment to Nebraska, per TomVH.

Three-star RB Karan Higdon, who took a surprise weekend visit to Michigan, will stick with his commitment to Iowa, per Rivals' Blair Sanderson. Michigan also took a late run at four-star FL RB Dexter Williams, but he's a lock to end up at Notre Dame, per 247's Tom Loy ($).

Oh, here's just some casualreading on Mike Weber, who'll make his final decision on Wednesday. While Weber has shut things down with the media, word leaking out of Detroit is positive regarding Michigan's chances to flip him back from Ohio State.

2016 Updates

The hiring of Chris Partridge as a recruiting staffer should pay immediate dividends in the form of improved chances with five-star 2016 DT Rashan Gary, who played for Partridge at Paramus Catholic. Gary told Sam Webb before the hiring was official that he's very close with Partridge ($):

“Coach Partridge really helped my family during [my transfer to Paramus Catholic],” said Gary. “He told me to keep my head up and just focus on football. ‘Focus on football. You get ready by your first game and I promise you that you’ll play your first game.’ He was right.”

“That’s my guy. That’s someone that I can come to for personal things (outside of) football. I can talk to him about school and on a personal level. He gives me advice. When I got (to Paramus Catholic) he made me feel like it was home. That’s somebody that definitely keep in contact with the rest of my life with.”

Gary added that while he's backed off recruiting for the time being, he'll "definitely" take a visit to Ann Arbor. When the news officially broke of the Partridge hire, Tom Lemming declared Michigan the "odds-on favorite" to land Gary.

Michigan offered four-star NJ DE Quayshon Alexander, per Steve Lorenz. Thus far his only other offers are from Miami (YTM), Pitt, and Rutgers.

"The de-commitment from Michigan was just a business decision, and it was a decision I made after talking to my family," deWeaver stated. "We thought it was best to reopen my recruitment and take a look at some other schools right now. I'm wide open right now and anxious to speak with other programs."

"I did talk to Michigan about my decision, and we are keeping the lines of communication open," he added. "I have not spoken with Coach (Jim) Harbaugh yet, but I'm sure we will. I'm thankful to them for offering me."

DeWeaver has visits set up to Michigan State and Florida in the near future.

Clark and Weber will hurt the most, but I find it puzzling that UCLA is getting so much traction (Weber to OSU hurts, but isn't hard to trace logic). Smith and Marshall seem very unlikely, but again, how does UCLA pull a Georgia kid away?

I will hope for one of these two guys, and be exstatic if we get both. Wheatley Jr. + 1 more NSD surprise will either dull the pain or blow the cover off.

I wonder if there is anything to be said about a greater proportion of kids who are undecided currently liking that style more and maybe the kids who would thrive with harbaughs intensity were more likely to have assertively chosen a school earlier- purely speculative foods for thought.

UCLA just had the last two Butkus award winners, I think that gives them a lot of pull with linebackers. They're in a great location and finally have competent coaching, why wouldn;t they be developing traction? They've also been putting in a lot of effort to recruiting TX, LA, AL, GA, FL lately as well as they need to find another space to carve out until the lockdown USC has on most top Southern California prospects goes away.

You're right. I was thinking Anthony Barr had won it as well, but it turned out to be something called the Lott IMPACT trophy.

Either way, you've got a linebacking Coprs that graduated Anthony Barr as a first round pick, had the latest Butkus award winner, Currently has Myles Jack getting a ton of attention and I think it's safe to say any linebacker should probably go ahead and listen if they're calling.

UCLA is coming off two quality years (top 15 finishes), but IMO it doesn't feel like they should have the momentum we're seeing. They strike me as a basketball school and second fiddle to crosstown rival USC in football. They are certainly doing something right but the head-to-head battles they appear to be leading in suprise me.

Former NFL head coach and a bevy of former NFL players on staff, good academics, great location, and a run of success. The points you're making are true, LA is a USC town and UCLA has traditionally been a basketball school, but they have a lot of factors in their favor that just required a half decent coaching staff to take advantage of. To go with that, they're still pretty much getting their ass kicked by USC for any SoCal recruits that USC really wants, so they have to broaden their reach(think of it like Michigan vs. Ohio St in Ohio).

The Clark decision is the one that seems the most confusing to me about UCLA. I understand the appeal of spending 4ish years in southern California vs. Ann Arbor but it seems like from a football development standpoint Michigan is the clear choice over UCLA for a TE. But hey, maybe Clark would rather enjoy the sun and women of UCLA and believes Mora will use a TE more if he gets one of Clark's caliber, I will just be dissapointed if Harbaugh can't convince him to see the future of Michigan being the new spot for TE's.

It's seriously possible that we'll finish #2 for Williamson (Florida), Weber (OSU), Clark (UCLA), Marshall (USC), Smith (#2/3, UCLA/Georgia), Jefferson (Ole Miss), and Arnette (OSU). That would be a punch to the balls, although finishing #2 with just a few weeks to recruit probably bodes well for this staff's future recruiting.

I've been following MIchigan recruiting pretty closely for two decades now, and if I had a dollar for every nationally-ranked recruit that we finished second on during that time, I could take you, Mrs. Turd, and all the little Turdlets to the Chop House and finish off with cigars, dessert, and cognac at Dolce Vita and still have money left over.

This sentiment is repeated year after year. Of COURSE the staff is about to strike out on a bunch of guys. No team gets 100% of the players they offer, and we don't even have room for everyone who's committing in the next several days. Off the top of my head, here's a list of guys we're "in it" for:

But from that list it sounds like we might just end up with Wheatley. That's a 90% strike out rate and to be honest, I was expecting a lot better when we hired Harbaugh. Oh well, it's a small class anyway.

I will happily take those that do. Like many, I believe next year will be an entirely different story once this staff has had a full year to recruit instead of only a few weeks. This year, I want kids that will work hard and have bought into Harbaugh's program. I am hoping those players will have 4 or 5 stars attached to their name, and I REALLY hope Weber is one of them if only so I can imagine Urban's annoyance-but so be it.

The main thing is that for the first time in let's just say a while, I have total confidence this staff will develop players and get the maximum out of their talent by putting them in positions to be successful. That prospect is an exciting one for me.